My reactions to India's 9/11

After over 50 hours of shootings, grenades being thrown, fires raging and people jumping out of buildings, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai are over....for at least a few months anyway. Surprisingly, people in Mumbai (called Mumbaikers) have already started to get back to their normal life. All of this started on Wednesday night (Indian time) and just finished this afternoon....they really like to take their time with it all! So all day Thursday and Friday I didn't go out of the house. On Friday night, Dennis (the director of Champlain College in Mumbai) invited me over to his apartment for a Thanksgiving dinner. His place is about a 10 minute rickshaw ride away from me, so I felt safe going alone. Everything was still quiet though when I went out and came back from the dinner.

Then today I went to my internship by rickshaw rather than by train. The rickshaw ride was pretty expensive (60 rupees=about $1.50), for Indian standards, but I'd rather pay that then risk my life on the train. I still didn't/don't feel safe taking the train right now. Dennis said taking the rickshaw was a good idea too. While I was at my internship, the attacks finally ended....after 3 freakin days!! Even though they're saying the death count is about 150, I know it's more than that. There's probably 100 dead bodies in one of the hotels alone! The Oberoi hotel and Taj Mahal Hotel (both 5 star hotels) each have about 800 rooms in them, so you can imagine the damage there. They'll have to close down and renovate their hotels, which will make them lose a lot of business.

And believe it or not, if you were in Mumbai right now (excluding downtown area), you probably couldn't even tell that something happened. It looks so normal now. People are out on their motorcycles whizzing through traffic, people buying produce for the night's dinner, and of course the construction on the hundreds of new apartment complexes have resumed. And what I've see and heard, people aren't even talking about it. I've been talking about it with Dennis and his wife, Blanche, and Barbara (who is from Austria and is also here for 4 months helping out at the orphanage) though. It's hard not to talk about it! We still can't believe how much damage 15-20 terrorists can do. The Indian government is so bad, and already everyone is blaming the politicians. The elections here are coming up, so you can imagine the huge blame game that is going to be happening over the next several months here. They seemed so helpless when all of this was going on. At first the police in Mumbai thought that they could handle the situation, but then after several hours of being defeated by the terrorists (and losing countless police officers), they decided that calling in the army would be good. Uh, yeah! What ever gave you that notion?! I just don't understand how it can take 3 days for them to get the guests out of the hotel. Keep in mind that these guests didn't have access to food or water for those 3 days either. Crazy!! They're definitely going to be criticized in the following weeks and months for sure. And I don't blame the media when they do.
Usually I get the newspaper every morning on my way to the internship and read it on the train. But since I didn't go to my internship, I never got the paper. Now I wish I had gotten the paper so that I could preserve history and keep a copy for my scrapbook :)

The funny thing is with all of this is that I was just talking to Blanche about what I was going to show my Dad and his friend Hollis when they arrive in Mumbai. I was planning to bring them to see the Gateway of India, Taj Mahal Hotel, and to have lunch at the Leopold's Cafe. Buuuut I don't think we'll do that. Now I wish I had seen the Taj Hotel interior before all this happened. I've seen the outside of it, but not the inside. Now I never will. Leopold's Cafe, where the terrorists opened fired at, is a very popular place to eat for foreigners. The terrorists were certainly very smart and definitely knew where the foreigners were. At the Oberoi hotel, the terrorists told the guests that everyone could leave except for people with a U.S. or U.K. passport. Not good!

And to reassure everyone of my safety.....Early Thursday morning at 3am, Dennis actually called me up to let me know about the attacks. The attacks all started around 11:30pm Wednesday night, but it takes a while for the news to travel if people aren't watching the news. I guess he had just heard the news at 3am and wanted to make sure that I didn't go to my internship the next morning. After that 3am call, he and I have been in constant contact about if I should go out, go to my internship, etc. Champlain in Burlington has also been in contact with him to make sure that everyone here is okay.

I knew that I was never going to forget my experience in Mumbai, but now I definitely won't forget it. And people all over the world won't forget it either.

Thanksgiving....Indian style

Back home in the U.S. is Thanksgiving. And since I'm not in the U.S. sitting down at the table with my family having a nice big slice of turkey meat and cranberry sauce, I had to make do with the Indian way. Blanche had felt bad that I wasn't home celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and wanted to make it up to me. When we were talking about it in fact, she was under the impression that Thanksgiving was a bigger holiday than Christmas in the U.S. Hmm....that boggled my mind. It just goes to show how people around the world view the U.S. and our culture and holidays. I guess some people think Thanksgiving is bigger because all Americans celebrate it and Christmas is only celebrated by Christians. Buuuut, I still don't know about that. To me, Christmas is a bigger holiday but Thanksgiving comes in at a close second.

Anywho, so Blanche had said that since I wasn't going to be home for Thanksgiving, she wanted to make it up to me. So, earlier in the week we decided that we would go to the movie theater and catch a Bollywood movie then have some dinner at a very nice Chinese restaurant....because who doesn't like Chinese, right? Early in the week, that was the plan. Then of course "India's 9/11" happened and that plan was shot down. So then we said that we would watch the reality tv that was unfolding on tv aka the terrorist attacks and order in chinese food. It was so sweet of Blanche, because being an American, she wanted me to try American chop suey....Indian's version of it. Boy is it different!! The Indian version of American chop suey is made up of tons of sweet and sour sauce, some little chicken pieces and vegetables. What you're supposed to do is take some crispy Chinese noodles, put them on your plate then pour the sweet and sour chicken mixture over the noodles then top it all off with a fried egg. It was interesting for sure! I thought that there was waaay too much sweet and sour sauce but it was a good combination with the fried egg and noodles...gave it a good texture.

This week I was also supposed to have had a Thanksgiving dinner with Dennis (the director of Champlain College in Mumbai) and his wife. That ended up being rescheduled for tonight due to the terrorist attacks. I have to say, they made a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner from what they had to work with. For dinner, we had some chicken with gravy, stuffing, weird potatoes that were white but sweet, green beans and some rolls. And no Thanksgiving is without a homemade apple pie. You know, I was very impressed by all of this, especially for the fact that almost no kitchens in India have an oven. Apparently Dennis' apartment is that rare 10% of apartments in India with an oven. And because of that rare oven, we were able to have our Thanksgiving.

When I was riding home in a rickshaw after dinner, I couldn't believe how eerie and quiet it still was. It was 11 o'clock at night, but for the shopping happy, club hopping area of Bandra, it was very quiet. People still have that fear in them and that cautious nature about them when going anywhere it seems. Other than when the taxis and rickshaws were on strike, I've never seen it so quiet here. For myself, I will be going to my internship tomorrow (after 2 days of not going) but I'll definitely be taking a rickshaw there rather than the train. I'm still a little nervous to take a train right now.

I'm so happy that I did get out of the house tonight and go to the Thanksgiving dinner at Dennis' place. I have been couped up in the apartment since Wednesday night and it's been slowly driving me insane! I can't even imagine how the people couped up in the hotels downtown feel/felt when they were stuck in their room for over 40 hours (without food and water I might add)! So crazy!

Mumbai blasts, shootings and hostage situations....oh my!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm okay. Last night at around 9:30pm (Mumbai time...11am Wednesday morning Eastern Standard Time), blasts and shootings in downtown Mumbai occurred. Two five star hotels, the Oberoi Hotel and the Taj Mahal Hotel, had terrorists come into their hotels and start to shoot at people. Since then, parts of the Taj Mahal Hotel have caught fire. The Oberoi Hotel also has a hostage situation on their hands. Approximately 40 people (mostly people with a U.S. or British passport) have been taken hostage in the hotel by terrorists. So far, they've demanded nothing but still remain holding the foreigners. The shootings and hostage situation has continued throughout the night and still continues today.

I'm so happy that I'm not in downtown Mumbai (about 30-45 minutes from me depending upon traffic), but pray for the people that are there. It's one of those times that you think it will always happen to someone else or to another city, but never you or your own city. But it has. When you see Iraqi cities on the news and blasts happening there, it's out of your personal world because you are not personally affected. It's scary to say, but when I'm watching all of this unfold on the news, to me it looks just like what you would see on the news in Iraq or Afghanistan. Such a scary thing.

Since this all started last night, the government has placed all the major cities in India on high red alert and have closed down all the schools in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is. I usually take the commuter train and local bus to get to my internship every morning, but I did not go to my internship today. I don't know how it will be tomorrow, but for today (on America's Thanksgiving holiday) everything is closed and I am not even going to attempt to go outside.

I pray for all the families of those affected by this tragedy. For the Anti-Terrorist Squad Chief that was killed during these shootings, for the hostages in the Oberoi hotel and especially for the terrorists themselves and their families.

Here is an article from cnn.com about the blasts....

(CNN) -- The morning after teams of gunmen carried out a brazen series of attacks across southern Mumbai, killing scores of people and taking hostages in three locations, the situation showed little signs of a quick resolution.

A series of gunshots rang through the air at the Oberoi Hotel Thursday morning, where about 100 members of a specialized unit of the Indian police undertook an operation to rescue four to five foreigners hostages on the 19th floor.

A few blocks away, a series of gunfire sent curious onlookers scurrying for cover at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Shortly afterward, police escorted dozens of people -- who appeared to be mostly westerners -- out of the hotel. A.N. Roy, the police chief of Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located, said all hostages there had been freed.

A standoff at a third location -- the Cama Hospital for women and infants -- also appeared to have been resolved by Thursday morning, CNN's sister station CNN-IBN reported. It was not immediately known whether gunmen at the hospital fled or were killed.

Israel Foreign Ministry was attempting to locate about 20 Israeli nationals missing in the city as police said four suspected gunmen took cover in a building called Nariman House, where several Jewish families live.

Police said gunmen fired indiscriminately from the building throughout the night. Stray bullets killed a couple in their home and a 16-year-old boy who stepped outside, police said.

Authorities asked residents in Mumbai to stay inside, uncertain whether other attacks were planned in the city.

That warning failed to stop knots of curious onlookers from strolling Thursday through the streets of this financial center to survey the damage at some of the 10 sites that, without warning, had turned into battlegrounds late Wednesday.

Mumbai remained locked down with police checking cars randomly. The stock market in the city -- the financial capital of India -- was closed, as were schools and colleges.

Government officials said the attacks caught them completely unawares, with no intelligence chatter indicating that such a coordinated assault was in the works. Instead, authorities had focused their attention on securing movie theaters and malls after receiving indications that terrorists were intending to attack those locations, CNN-IBN reported.

"It's war on Mumbai," read the banner headline on the front page of The Times of India.

Mumbai police spokesman Satish Katsa put the death toll to be at least 85 and another 200 wounded. An earlier report said an additional nine attackers had been killed.

At the five-star Taj Mahal Hotel, a fire continued to burn hours after it began on the top floor of the majestic, century-old Victorian building popular among Western tourists and diplomats.

CNN employee Yasmin Wong was among the guests at the Taj Mahal who holed up in her fourth-floor room for several hours, then ran out her door, down the stairs, into the lobby and past the pool in the rear of the hotel to safety.

"I saw a few casualties on the way down," she told CNNI. She said she also saw the guest in a room above hers. He had smashed out his fifth-floor window to escape the fire and was hanging out his window, but no one was there to help.

"He was just screaming and yelling for help," she said, adding that she did not know what became of the man. "I'd been instructed just to get out of my room," she said.

Bhushan Gagrani, a spokesman for Maharashtra, said no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

But several Indian news outlets reported receiving e-mails from a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen that claimed responsibility for the attacks. CNN was not able to verify the reports.

Gagrani said nine suspects were arrested overnight and three other people were detained for questioning. CNN-IBN reported that seven of the nine arrested are fishermen. The network said that police found a boat loaded with explosives near the Taj Mahal.

Hemant Karkare, chief of Mumbai police's anti-terrorism squad, was among the fatalities at the Hotel Oberoi, officials said.

In addition, 11 other police were killed, Deshmukh said. He said officials did not know how many attackers were involved.

A man told local television that he was in the Oberoi around 10 p.m. when gunmen entered the lobby and began rounding up guests, asking for anyone with a U.S. or British passport and taking hostage about 15 of them.

The Cafe Leopold, another popular hangout for Western tourists, was also targeted, and one police official said an attack occurred at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, a Victorian building.

CNN-IBN reported the attacks began shortly before 10 p.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) Wednesday and witnesses were reporting new explosions and gunfire into early Thursday morning.

A.N. Roy, the police chief of Maharashtra, said the gunmen used grenades and automatic weapons.

India has suffered a number of attacks in recent years, including a string of bombs that ripped through packed Mumbai commuter trains and platforms during rush hour in July 2006. About 209 people were killed in that attack.

Last July, a series of synchronized bomb blasts in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad left 49 dead and more than 100 wounded, police said.

But Paresh Parihar, a businessman in Mumbai, described Wednesday's attacks as unlike any previous ones.

"They really don't fear for their lives or any other activity that could put them in danger," he told CNN. "This is really a very unusual situation."

Mumbai ordered schools closed Thursday.

CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh and Correspondent Andrew Stevens in Mumbai contributed to this story.

.....oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I love India.....I hate India.....I love India......

Some days I can't believe that I'm here. I have to pinch myself to realize that I'm halfway across the world in India. If a pinch on the arm doesn't work, the sight of cows roaming the streets or the stench of freshly hacked chickens in the market definitely does. I'm in such awe of how beautiful the colors are, how friendly some of the people are and how diverse the culture can be. Everyone always thinks of America as the "melting pot" country, but now that I've experienced India, I beg to differ. In India, there are countless languages spoken (a different language spoken in every state), many religions and festivals practiced, and so many different cultures just melding together. Since Mumbai is one of the biggest cities in India, I have certainly had the chance to see the melting pot at work. All different castes/social classes come together to function as one society here.

Today when I was in a rickshaw going to pay my internet bill, the notion of different castes functioning in one society really hit me....literally. At a red light, two street children came up to my rickshaw and started to beg for money. Now these children were dressed in rags with their hair all matted and scruffled and looked like they hadn't had a bath in days. If this was my first day in Mumbai, I might be more lenient to give them money. But now, I know the story and drill. If these children get any money from foreigners or passersby, they will probably give the money to their parents, who will in turn buy drugs or alcohol with it. For this reason, I don't give money to any beggars. Every day, I must have at least ten to twenty different adults and children come up to me asking for money. But today, this really popped my bubble and ripped my security blanket to shreds. After I told these two children that I wouldn't give them money, they started to climb into the rickshaw with me and pull at my pants and top. I couldn't believe it! The rickshaw driver did nothing and said nothing to make them go away. I told them firmly "no" many times and all they would do was keep dancing around the rickshaw and get back into the rickshaw with me. I was scared! One of the children started to talk to the rickshaw driver (probably in Hindi or Marathi). It was at this point that I really wanted to know the language. Even just to impress them and shock them out of their wits. Finally, the light turned green and the children hopped out of the rickshaw and left. But for those few minutes, I couldn't believe what was going on. I yearned, and still yearn, for my own personal space and bubble. It is one of the things that I can't wait to have when I come home. It's one of those things that you don't realize that you'll miss until it's gone.

Just another day in India...

Live Earth India concert!

On December 7 Live Earth will host a concert right in Mumbai in hopes of bringing the global warming crisis to light. Al Gore, Bon Jovi, Will.I.Am. and many Indian singers and celebrities will make an appearance at the concert. I'm sure that I'll be posting pictures of the concert for all your viewing eyes to see too. It's going to be the concert of a lifetime and I just bought tickets to it! I never thought in a million years that these names would be coming to India, never mind Mumbai....but they are! And it came at just the right time and place for me too. The concert's going to be on the same road as where my internship is, so I'll have no problem getting there. And it just happens to be happening three days before I leave for my trip to South India....the timing couldn't be more perfect. I can't wait!

You can check out more about the concert and organization at http://liveearth.org/

More pictures are up!

I just uploaded more pictures of Mumbai, so feel free to check them out! Just click on the link to the left and you'll be able to see all the pictures :)

Waiting on the world to change

Since I've been here I've had to wait 2 hours for my food to be delivered, an extra week for the tailor to finish my salwar kameez suit, quite a few weeks for the travel agent to book my flights & hotels for southern india.....and the list goes on and on. Especially after I got frustrated with the travel agent taking her time, I talked to Blanche (the woman I'm staying with) about it. She said that these people know the power that they have over you. They want you to know that they have power over you. You need them in order to get whatever you need done. So they keep you waiting, and waiting and waiting. We all know that a restaurant two blocks down from where you live shouldn't take 2 hours for the food to arrive on a weekday night. But the restaurant also knows that you want your food and you will wait those 2 hours because you want it so badly. *sigh* It gets rather frustrating to wait. John Mayer might have been talking about the world needing to change, but he certainly was right in saying that we're waiting for things to change....whether we're waiting for oil prices to go down or for your oily food to arrive to your apartment.

Getting the most out of my experience here

Throughout my time at my internship here, I have had to tred very carefully when I wanted to know more about HIV, AIDS, the red-light district/trafficking of minors, and even more about the orphanage in general. When I first began my work at the orphanage, it was very difficult for me to even talk with anyone about anything. In my opinion, people were not very friendly and open for me to learn new things. As a social work student and as a global citizen, I crave learning new things. I came to India to have new experiences and gain some knowledge about international adoption. The social worker that handles the adoptions at the orphanage was "always busy" and never had time to speak with me. I was told by the nun in charge to play with the babies and teach the girls English.

That being said, I am approaching my last month here in India and I am finally opening up the pathway to knowledge. By sheer coincidence, I have been able to connect with the outreach worker at the orphanage. I'll call her Joanne. She goes to the slums and houses of the families who still have relationships with the girls at the orphanage. She has been wonderful and has been able to put me in contact with the right people. I guess it's always who you know and then after that connection, you're able to get in the door. It has been frustrating for me throughout my experience here but I am glad that I'm finally able to get at least a little bit of information about what St. Catherine's Home does and what the process is for adoption.

Joanne has put me in contact with one of the social workers that helps out with the adoptions. I'll call her Hillary. Behind closed doors and whispered voices, Hillary has been able to tell me how the adoption process works, how children get "dropped off" at the orphanage, what some of the adoption forms look like, and the files that St. Catherine's has on each girl. With every workplace, there is politics. And politics was the reason why those doors had to be shut and our voices had to become whispers when she showed me files and told me about the adoption process.

If anyone's interested about how the adoption process works, keep on reading. Other than that, thanks for reading my blog. There are two ways that babies get "dropped off" at the orphanage. 1) Police find babies who are abandoned and are under safe custody. They bring the babies to the hospital for a check-up then deliver them to the orphanage. 2) Unwed mothers will go to the orphanage a few months before giving birth to the baby. After the child is born, the unwed mothers relinquish the baby to the orphanage. If people find a baby on the streets, they have to go through the police in order to bring it to St. Catherine's. The police then bring the baby to the child welfare committee chair person. The court gives a name to the baby and gives a memo/paperwork to the orphanage. The orphanage is required then to publish pictures of the baby in newspapers and in the media for 4 months. After publishing those pictures for 4 months, they wait one month after the telecast to see if anyone has wanted to claim the baby. Usually this does not happen. After that, the child is free to be adopted by a family. The orphanage then writes information about the court hearings, processes, etc.

When a family wants to adopt a child, they have to keep these things in mind:
1. If a family already has children of the same sex, it's easy to adopt another child. If they have a boy and a girl already, then it's hard to adopt. Parents also have to have a combined salary (I don't know if it's a monthly or annual salary) of 10,000 rupees (about $250 US dollars). The parents also have to invest 10,000 into the child for education, marriage, etc. The combined age of the parents and the child has to be no greater than 90 years. So if the mom & dad are both 40 years old, then they can adopt a child who is 10 years or younger.

Interesting, huh? I thought it was. The politics of the orphanage sure get in the way of actually learning about the orphanage itself but somehow I'm still able to learn a little bit about it. More to come I hope :)

All Soul's Day

I've probably said this a lot throughout my journal entries, but I'll say it again. Living with an Indian woman rather than in a dorm, my own apartment or school housing has lead me to have so many wonderful experiences. If I had lived in a dorm or in any other housing while in India without living with a local family or person, I wouldn't have been able to have conversations about elections, Indian traditions, Penelope Cruz, Bollywood like I have been able to have. I haven't been able to meet too many people while I've been here, but the rich experiences and quality of the experiences has certainly given me a whole different perspective on life. And for that, I am so grateful.

One of these experiences that I've been able to have with Blanche, the woman that I'm staying with, is the holiday of All Soul's Day. All Soul's Day falls right after Halloween, on November 2nd. In India on All Souls' Day, many families go to the cemetery to pay their respects to their loved ones that have passed. I wasn't doing anything on Sunday, when the holiday fell so Blanche invited me to go with her to the cemetery. When we got to the cemetery, I couldn't believe my eyes. I don't think I have ever seen that many people at one cemetery at a time. There were hundreds of families celebrating and mourning their loved ones that had died.

Despite the pollution and layer of dirt that surrounds India, you can't help but to also see the beauty and color as well. As families came to pay their respects to their loved ones, they would bring flowers and candles to decorate the grave. Where the person was buried and where the coffin was, they would cover that area in flowers. Every little square inch of that area was covered in beautiful colors of yellow, orange, pink and red flowers. Similar to rongoli, some people made designs with the flowers, such as a cross or other symbols.

It was a sad day for everyone that came to the cemetery but at the same time, you couldn't help but to smile at all the beautiful decorations and candles surrounding each grave. India is truly a country of color in more ways than one.